Month: September 2018

Standing behind the shiny stainless-steel counter at Sorriso Italian Pork Store, Frank DePaola is all smiles.
Frank came to America from Italy in 1966 when he was 9.
His is a big, broad, toothy grin, the kind people break into when a photographer asks them to “Say cheese!”
It’s a habit Frank can’t break: He’s been doing it all 60 years of his life, and he has practiced it on a daily basis since he opened Sorriso nearly 40 years ago.
Sorriso Italian Pork Store is at 44-16 30th Ave.
“I…

As the little leotarded girls arrive for the 10 a.m. tap class at Broadway Dance Studio, Edie Bongiovi greets them at the front desk, a semicircular structure surrounded by pint-size four-legged stools.
Miss Edie started tap lessons at Broadway Dance Studio when she was 3.
Watching the parents helping the 2- and 3-year-olds put on their shiny black patent leather shoes, she smiles.
This routine act brings back a lot of memories. Miss Edie, as her students call her, began dancing at Broadway when…

When he reaches the end of the dark, tunnel-like hallway, Kenny Greenberg switches on the signs.
Kenny is the owner of Krypton Neon.
Luncheonette.
State Garage.
Pepsi-Cola.
Airstream Since 1931.
Krypton Neon is in Long Island City.
Beacons in the blackness, they blink their eyes open, one by one, bathing the studio in the soft glow of history.
Neon signs debuted 108 years ago, and for the last 38 of them, Kenny and his Krypton Neon studio have been an integral part of their illuminating story.
Kenny,…

It happened at a summer camp in the Catskills.
It’s where Mike and Allison Hayhurst met; it’s why they share the same surname.
Allison, who doesn’t have a Southern accent, is from Alabama.
Mike, who is from Leighton Buzzard, England, was teaching theatre there.
So was Allison, who was from the other side of the Atlantic Ocean, specifically Huntsville, Alabama.
Mike’s from England.
Allison: “At the last minute, a friend asked me to design costumes for . It was just for three weeks,…